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Mission Impossible: Presidential popularity

Sure it’s a big job, but I don’t know anyone who can do it better than I can.”
– President John F. Kennedy

For the life of me I can’t fathom why anyone would want to be President of the United States. Sure, there are cool perks – an armor-plated limo, boot-licking sycophants, a button that could blow up the world and having people learn your name in grade school. Still, that stuff can’t take you but so far. At the end of day (and the beginning, too), you got to BE The Man. And that part of the job strikes me as a never-ending headache without the benefit of an appropriately extra-strength analgesic.

You can’t win, no matter what you do or who you are. Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t matter. To be president is to be despised by some segment of the nation’s – or world’s – population. A president must make decisions and nearly every one of them has real-world consequences. The consequences brings out the critics. The critics drive down your popularity.

For Barack Obama, it’s worse than for most presidents because, let’s face it, he’s black. Who dares argue that whatever is hard for white people is a hundred times more difficult for black folks? Only a few of the preceding presidents were exceptional. All of them were white men and most were mediocre, especially that ninny who contributed heavily to Obama’s current woes. I can’t think of a single one except the first – George Washington – who remained universally popular throughout his term and into retirement. The nature of public’s embrace of presidents is to love ’em short term and hate ’em long term.

In Obama’s case, the pitch fork and torch crowd showed up prematurely. His opponents in the GOP revealed themselves on Day One. Following a game plan set forth on talk radio, they agreed in unprecedented fashion to oppose any and everything the first black American president proposed doing. They were openly hostile to his ideas for health care reform, economic stimulus packages, financial regulation reform and fighting terrorism.

They’re Republicans and that’s how politics is played from the far right side of the spectrum nowadays. Actually, just saying ‘No’ is about all that side has going for them. The strategy is to cripple the administration and federal government (read: the American people and its elected representatives) in an effort to strangle the national will for change. So be it. That’s how they roll.

But what’s going on with the left? Almost two years since his historic election, the glow of that moment is yielding to a harsh reality. Obama’s base is cracking under him. Novelist and essayist Leonce Gaiter summarizes the disillusionment of many progressives, railing that Obama lacks the courage and/or conviction to truly be a transformative progressive president. “He’s a typical Democrat,” Gaiter writes with a sneer.

Other lefties, representing a dizzying array of issues besotting American life, tend to agree that Obama isn’t what they hoped for. At various times the progressive edge of the Democratic coalition has frayed with gay activists, immigration reform-minded Latinos, black political leaders, environmentalists and others flashing from frustration to anger with the president that each of them believes it alone elected to do its singular bidding.

Fact of the matter they couldn’t have been listening when Obama said repeatedly during the campaign that he intended to be president of all America, not just to a set of special interests. On this pledge, he’s been faithful since moving into the White House. Indeed, Obama has gone out of his way to be presidential with Republican leaders in Congress, seeking failed compromise after failed compromise with his opponents. And that’s the rub. As he tries to be popular with his sworn enemies, Obama’s driving his liberal buddies bonkers.

Time magazine noted how upset some are with his “master of compromise” talent that were on display in the White House reaction to the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. No less than Spike Lee, left-leaning movie maker and all-round gadfly, piped in to urge Obama to “Go off!” and flash some emotion to show fellow progressive that the president is in charge.

Obama the Cool Cat reacted to Lee’s complaint in his calm, collected and oh-so-Obama style. That wasn’t good enough for the progressive critics. He still didn’t make them happy.

Meanwhile, neither were the right wingers. Pointing to another interview with NBC Nightly News, where the president used mildly salty language to defend his handling of the oil spill, one blogger (which passes nowadays for journalistic commentary) went off – on Obama for having a “potty mouth” and “spewing profanity.”

Perhaps this see-sawing of popularity helps explain why nearly every occupant of the Oval Office has a thick skin and out-sized ego. A president has to be his own best friend. Then, they’re condemned for being aloof and arrogant. If I were Obama, I’d be at a loss about what to do.

There’s just no pleasing way to be the president of all the American people. I wonder why anyone would even try.

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2 Responses

Besides his natural eveness, we must remember that this president spends his nights in the arms of a healthy, supportive, smart black woman and his days smiling at his two sweet young daughters. That goes a long way toward grounding a person and leveling angry stress induced outbursts.

Recent pique over Obama not showing ordinary anger or “Go off!” about the Gulf disaster is really aimed at lowering his persona to ordinary range. This is always an impluse as ordinary people try to comprehend extraordinary people. Obama is not divine but he is not ordinary. Just look at his accomplishments.

What drives people like Obama is the same as that which drove Muhammad Ali; they possess a set of extraordinary skills and they exert their abilities to find their limit. As it happens, Obama’s skills are intellectual and political, Ali’s were hand speed and showmanship, both feel themselves to be champions and take on challenges to prove it. That’s why Ali is remembered as The Greatest although Joe Frazier beat him and why Obama will be remembered as great despite his detractors.

A very discerning, finely tuned appraisal of the inherent dilemma confronting an American president, and especially President Obama, whose insightful, mature, balanced approach and long-term vision are not fully appreciated (to put it mildly) by his detractors. One must counsel patience to those of his original supporters grown impatient or quickly disillusioned and not fully aware of the complexity of the whole Obama has endeavored to address. His intricate, careful way of thinking, and noble-spirited quality, are not fathomed by those opponents furiously driven by some combination of blindly ideological impulses, egotistical, narrow-minded considerations, even in part, alas, by yet present racist hatred. These critics fail to grasp the timely opportunity presented the nation, in the form of this unique leader, yes, leader!, to address the serious and pressing ills besetting it. President Obama, cosmopolitan in awareness yet ever loyal to his own nation, has restored respect for the United States abroad. Instead of rejoicing in the fact that a courageous and brilliant leader is at hand to tackle the political and economic mess inherited from the preceding administration, these false patriots, including the majority of the Republicans, indeed incessantly throw hurdles in the way of the necessary reform so valiantly striven for by Obama. Obama’s seeking of the cooperation of his opponents and his willingness to compromise in order to facilitate desperately needed progress should not be decried as weakness, but rather heralded as a strength. They who are weak are those who have made it their agenda to destroy, from day one, without any honest contemplation, the urgently needed reforms sought by the Obama administration. The Presidency is a most difficult and unthankful position for Obama to be in, yet he is mastering it with his usual grace and quiet, firm strength of character.